:: MeDioCraCy ::

What would you do if your home was under water? and when the water finally starts to subside, you are given another wake up call when it starts to rain again and water re-arises.. dont know if this word exists but if it does, it would be of good significance. Was sitting down with a group of bankers lately and was discussing the flood in Johor. A friend of my, who is a pretty high ranked officer in the bank, told us that the banks are estimating a RM 50,000.00 lost on household per family. So i started putting this figures in my head and calculated.. RM 1000 for a new fridge, RM 1000 for a new washing machine, RM 1000 for new TV and DVD player, RM 6000 for bedroom items, RM 1000 for hall furniture, RM 1000 for the kitchen, and that comes up to RM 11,000. Re-wiring for electricity? RM 3000 maybe.. New computer, RM 3000, New air condition(s), RM 3000 and that makes RM 20,000. Renovations, maybe another RM 10,000 and that sums up to RM 30,000. I guess they over estimated? or maybe each house has more than 1 computer? or more than 1 tv? or more IKEA furniture…

Having calculated all those, it actually means that if you are a middle income earner, say about RM 1500 a month and your spouse probably about another RM 1500 a month, you have a household income of RM 3000. After repaying bank loans of maybe RM 1200 a month, RM 500 for food, RM 300 for petrol, RM 500 for the kids, you are probably able to save RM 500 a month.  This means RM 6000 per year.  By rough calculation, it now takes you 5 years to repay a loan you would need to take to go back to a normal lifestyle, with no extra savings after this 5 years. That’s not calculating taxes and car maintenance. OH GOSH! i forgot your insurance does not cover natural disaster, which means another RM 50,000 for a new car… It would be 10 years before you can get back on your own 2 feet…

Can you believe that? put myself in that shoe, i’d go MAD! as most KL ppl would if flood starts here.. after all the years we worked hard for a better living, you go back to square one? come to think of it, i hope the rumuors on the RM 0.50 increase in prices of petrol after chinese new year is NOT TRUE! or i’d have to buy a bicycle… Anyway, as a Kiwanian, www.kiwanisputrajaya.org we are doing some collection to buy some stationery for the kids going back to school. Least we can do as a small organization. Should you have some money to spare this holiday season, contact me directly. Your small dollars can make a big difference. cheers!

Drugs! you will never understand what it means to get involved with them until it’s too late… Just yesterday, i came to know that someone i know, musician friend, got involved in pushing ‘ganja’ in a pretty large amount.. he’s landed himself in prison this time.. is it worth it? spending your time around 4 walls? without your family and friends.. just waiting for your sentence to be read, and probably be dragged to the rope? i’m feeling a bit sad for this friend of my, as i never knew his indulgence in this.. he’s always been the nicest of guy.. just weird sometimes.. i wonder if he’s guitar is for sale.. nice acoustic takamine.. Anyway, last i heard, his warden baught him a guitar and he is now playing behind the walls.. Apparently, they enjoy his music thus they offer him cigarettes and ‘ta pau’ food from outside for him..

This kind of reminds me of Johny Cash.. and i guess nobody chooses to play music behind the walls but if u have to do it for a better day, you probably would… I hope the system does not get to him.. all the best my friend.. i hope u will survive this obstacle… cheers to my friend..

Befooled.. that was what i was last week. For all those that remember my blog about being stopped by the authorities for drinking driving not too long ago, well, i was befooled. I just learnt yesterday that we are allowed to have about 3 mugs of beer for the first drinking hour and about 1 mug hours thereafter. But what happens when you dont know all this? you get mugged by policeman at 3 in the morning. Darn! For you drinkers out there.. here’s what suppose to happen, the reading of the blower must show 80 and above for them to bring you to the station and on top of that, one of the police must drive you to the station. Then he has to write a report followed by bringing you to the hospital to blow in front of a bigger tester. Here, if your reading is above 80 which means u r not suppose to be on the road, they can charge you. And even if they do, you are allowed to set bail at RM 2000. No matter where the money comes from. Which means as long as someone can bring in the RM 2000, you cannot be kept in custody. However, dont try this nonsense on a Saturday night as Sunday is a holiday, which means you can only be bailed on monday. Don’t play play. Moreover, the fine is RM 1500 if you are caught drunk driving. so, RM 50 bribe is just a gimic.. if you really cant drive, and is above the limit of 80, then they will ask for more. I just blew into a baton that shows 2 lights. That’s how ignorant i was…

in 2006, Dr. Zainal Abidin from the Business Ethics Institute of Malaysia surveyed on people’s trust. and guess what, our fantastic law enforcers were almost the most untrusted by the surveyed lot. And yet, we choose to live our lives peacefully and allow this people to maintain the peace and harmony of our country. Truly Malaysian. My advice, if you have a person who has got into this position before, forward my blog add to them so that they can learn what i learnt yesterday… Fucked by the police.. that’s what i was… LEARN YOUR RIGHTS!

Ever heard of the song that goes "Torn Between Two Lovers" something like that…? It’s a very interesting song and this thought came up to me some days ago on what it really meant. It’s pretty simple actually.. It’s when u got to decide who you’re gonna stand by when ur in between… Although this selection might appear simple to some ppl, it seems to be rather difficult for me.. I’ve always thought, and hope never be put in that position to be asked to choose. At least i’m pretty sure i won’t be asked to. What do you do when you’re torn between two lovers? I’ve not been back to malacca much of late, due to work commitments.. Chinese New Year, i’m really going to need a long break..gonna be my resting time in Melaka again… Worst part of me is, i tried to play the guitar a couple of days ago.. my fingers were frosted.. somehow, if you dont practice, you loose your touch! i vow to pick up from where i left behind soon. Maybe i’d learn the song Torn Between 2 Lovers!

Rescently, i blogged about AKON! and i came to realize that a bunchfull of ppl actually reads my blog… hey u guys.. sign in and add a comment.. at least i know who’s reading my blog ma then i can say special hi… My special thanks to Helena & Gordon for at least shouting at me after reading my blog.. See u guys soon!

If you ever thought of going for a concert ‘ghetto’ style in malaysia ever again, please be prepared to be crushed and scrambled.. AKON! i’m not really even into the music but i wanted to bring the BINARY YOUTH leaders for the exposure on the big event environment. So i was there at 7 PM to meet with Alvin from DIGI.. he gave me my free tickets.. 8 to be precise which meant we had extras.. but it was so last minute we could not find anyone to come.. Then we thought, hey let’s just wait for a while.. chill out before we enter.. so we waited till about 8 before we started to wanna begin to queue up. We saw a small crowd in front of the entrance and it look like it had a continuity. Golly me.. the queue was up to about a KILOMETRE.. no joke! so since we were already there, what the hell, we queued. But after an hour, we went nowhere near the entry.. then we saw Hani from Hitz.TV.. she came DAMM LATE and was probably going to be in the back of the queue so we said, hey Hani, just queue with us.. she said cooL! then she made some phone calls to find out what was happening and she said hey there is a shorter way in and we tried that way.. we went through quite a hustle before we actually gained entry..

Then the harder part came.. squeezing ur way through was like getting squashed at every turn! but i think MAANOJ got some cheap thrills over it..apparently… haha! We made it to a place where we found some space.. and i sweat to god, there was like 10′000 ppl inside.. but hey..we did get in did we not.. it was like an experience watching Eric Clapton’s Guitar Festival but this time, it was just shouting music! haha no offense to AKON.. i actually admired his showmanship… it was really good.. and he actually had true musicians.. not bad.. The basis did a pretty good job and DJ Benny D did not too bad  a job either.. all in all, the music was not too bad.. honestly.. Later that night, we got ourselves an autographed album from AKON, again, sponsored by DIGI! thanks Alvin.. appreciate it…

Leaving that place, the PLAYA actually left with my parking ticket in his pocket. thank god he came back with it.. haha! got out of RUUMS and left for Backyard, back to some Country music with my brother in crime Raymond Chia! Then after an hour, we went to AGROS for DINNER..forgot to mention we did not eat before the concert.. So agros went on for about an hour or so before we headed home..

ROAD BLOCK! was just anput 100metres ahead… dammit.. and i tot.. hey i only got myself 2 1/2 beers… and i tot hey i’ve had more and gotten away with it.. but guess what, this was my FIRST TIME taking the blowing test.. and the stupid police was all ready for BRIBE… i guess Awal Muharam was near… darn! anyway i’m quite annoyed by the law.. 1 BEER is all ur allowed before ur not allowed to be on the ROAD??? darn! i cant even have a large bottle beer over dinner…then i’d be penalized for drunk driving… WHAT???? damm policeman told me if i fine u RM 2500 - RM 6000 u still can pay.. but do u want to spend 2 nights in jail? if u dont want then you know what to do la! damm it.. this are petty things that makes u wanna leave the country! darn! and thinking they do this every night! how is it they are allowing alcohol to be sold on the streets then? F*RK it! stupidity to the max! and they know without the tax they gain from alcohol they’d go down the draiN! in Malaysia we call it pure STUPIAK! so i made him a peace offering and he took it! and that was the end of my night! i went home and slept till 11 this morning before i came to worK! and now i’m spending my morning blogging about my EXCITING night out!

But it was all good.. never be discouraged by the negative things.. think positive.. i got good roti canai at 2 AM.. where else in the world do u find such things? hmmmm! weird thing was, these policeman were quite hardworking.. normally by 3, they would have all gone home.. this time, they were all wide awake! anyway cheers all, its pretty much lunch time now.. got to message my dearest wife before she leaves me luv u hoN!

Melaka’s Famous Satay Celup, heaven for most of the people who knows where it is.. the shop’s called CAPITOL Satay.. located in the heart of town, along Bukit Cina, you probably have to queue up to eat..but hey, its definitely worth queing for…else why would there be non stop ppl queuing all night long? the boss? friendly and nice.. if you know him like i do, then you get a special treat when you eat there.. just last Saturday, i was awarded with ABALONE! now how often do u get that? and it was fresh…texture was soft…yum yum! fantastic till d last bite… and that was one new year’s eve’s eve… hahaha d day after that, was at RINGO’s as usual.. the one place in melaka u can get descent music besides bamboo hut… sang a couple of songs before we count down and then it just went all crazy.

Whoever invented the PARTY SPRAY must have been lunatics.. everyone was spraying and shooting all over..my god… it smelled like gas..and i hate gas… imperfect start to a new year! but then we continue with the music and we sang and we sang till about 3.30 AM! golly me..was it that late? Thank god we were in melaka.. coz at that time u can proceed to Bandar Hilir’s famous "Roti Kahwin".. whats that? its the same thing u get in Uncle Lim’s.. u know the bread and butter thing but this is authentic and the butter and kaya drools from your mouth! dont believe me? i’ll bring u next time ur in melaka.

New year’s arrived.. planning for 2007 aint gonna be easy.. now i got to plan for my career as well… many things to plan about.. my mum mentioned last week that uncle bob urges me to work with him again.. u know i’d kinda like to work with him.. its got a lot of prospects and i probably can be someone in the business world by 30.. but somehow, the comfort in Binary and the things i’ve achieved so far makes me wanna achieve more.. i wonder if i’d get a pay raise soon?

That’s practically it for me… new year’s gonna be expending my career and saving up some money coz i got to start planning for my significant other… 2009 is the aim for me to settle down.. will i still be as naughty..i guess i will be.. but i’d still love my significant other as much! yes i do baby, i love you.. first blog in 2007 and i definitely wont forget to tell you that… born more children for me k? luv u lots..

To all my dear friends… happy 2007.. may it be as good for u as it will be for me!

Chocolates that are sweet to the last bite.. for some ppl that is.. which brings us to the topic of sex.. i happen to browse through friendster profiles last saturday and i found most amazing ppl! firstly, there were girls who say, i love sex and everything to do with it.. don’t try to pick me up, if ur hot, i will pick you up.. den there are others who say if u wanna have sex with me, just reload my phone and i will call you to set the place and time. WHAT? we all know a lot of people are kinky and horny, but its MALAYSIA! 98% of these ppl dont admit that they are… admit it! you don’t want other of your friends to see you online saying that you are looking for sex partners, especially girls… its just so NOT malaysian to do such a thing.. but hey, we also got to admit that this is why we have rape and sodomy and those sort of things, coz ppl cant control themselves.. and they cannot express themselves.. but i do know there are places that you can pick up chicks or pay for sex.. but do ppl go to this kind of places? well.. i guess those that can afford it do.. its hard nowadays to share sexual secrets with ppl! how nice if someone you trust were to tell you, hey let’s have an open conversation about sex… then its all kept secret after that.. fortunately, some ppl find nice gf’s or wives who are competent to that.. but what if you got a timid partner? hmmmm… the big question is, is one comfortable with sharing secrets and open conversations with close friends? im pretty sure i dont mind.. its secrets after all.. but i guess Malaysians will after all be Malaysians.. sometimes brave enough to say it in the open that they are open minded and up for open conversations, but how many live up to it? remains quite a big question mark!chocolates anyone?

While we all sing Auld Lang Syne this coming December, i’d prefer to take some time to flash back d beautiful things that happen to me in 2006. That’s the problem with us humans u see, we always look at d bad things that happened in our lives.. but we never appreciate d good things. I always believe that all things happen for a reason. Hoobastank said "and the reason is you" which means yes, how u inteprate your problem is purely u! In Months of 2006 , this is what has happened in my sweet life.

January : A new year, a new beginning…

Feburary: Valentines Day, played my first Open Mic Session in Backyard Pub

March: Picture above, Sherman, Gerard and Raymond were fantastically kind enough to drop by malacca on my birthday and do a Malacca Music Festival Gig in Bamboo Hut with me.. Fantastic bunch of friends i tell you… they’re the best..

April: Was posted to Yemen for a week.. Fantastic place..met fantastic ppl as well.. memories of Shamshul and Datin Dalilah from Tourism Malaysia, Edi, the Charge d Affairs of the Malaysian Embassy there, Natalie and the band from Taj Sheba Hotel, Aynoor from Petronas Yemen.. all these are ppl that were the best when i was there.. they took care of me like the’ve known me for ages.

May: Was in One in a Million competition for over a week before i got kicked out trying to sing Mungkin Nanti, a song i’ve never sung before.. i admit.. i deserved to be kicked out after that awfull render of that song.. nevertheless, i’ve met other fantastic vocalists and musicians like Cindy, Alif, Faizal, Phyne Ballerz, Joshua.. and countless more.. Musicians are all a good bunch of people..

June: Did some events this month and got to know some girl from university.. really sweet.. and by the end of the month, i was saying.. hey i’ll call you tonight k?

July: Found the love of my life…

August: Followed Gerard, Sherman & Raymond to the Singapore Waterfront Country & western Gig @ the esplanade. They were doing a gig with Paul Ponnudorai and i was the video and cameraman.. Fantastic experience.. again, the boys were wonderful.. me n my evil twin brother had many laughs and much good food.. oh yah.. 20th August was a good day as well.. haha and only i know why!

September: Got my first FULL pay after being paid lowly for a year due to my scholarship bonding.. earning bigger money now, but repaying CARD debts.. LIFE!

October: CULTURE SHOCK! my prom, after 3 years of not organizing one, came back with a bang… fantastic event.. could have been better.. learnt my mistakes and next year’s will definitely be more intriguing!

November: Cousin from Singapore got married..and i played at the wedding.. typical for family functions now.. but hey.. i do enjoy playing music.. so what the heck! happy for them though..sweet couple.. my grand uncle and grand aunty finally has hopes of becoming grandparents.. also, my darling sister found out that i was gonna be an uncle next year.. how scary..

December: DIGI Street Blast gave me the most blasting time.. i organized 30 students as troopers for the event… binary was d co-organizer… played on stage alongside Rappers and bands from Astro Blast Off.. i came in Second.. not too bad.. acted as monkey on stage and i won a SONY Xplode CAR STEREO worth RM 1600. Cool.. Christmas will be rather quiet as i will be spending time with family n my wife at Bukit Tinggi but New Years Eve will definitely be a blast as i take my final holidays for the year and spend them back home….

2007 HERE I COME!………………………

That’s the same old me.. playing where you’re not getting paid.. guess im not that good of a musician after all.. not versatile enuff.. sad but at least this time i got to play under a full set of professional sound… pretty kewl.. soundman was nice.. emcee hani was sweet as well.. and hell knows what i was doing on stage.. had a couple of chivas shots off stage.. it makes your voice go into a totally higher range you know… and that’s where i did my render of Stand By me, What’s Up and Suzy Q. I was up against bands who competed in the season 2 battle of the bands and also rap musicians.. it was pretty fun..and after all, i did take second place at the end of the day..so it was all good! the prizes were pretty normal actually..some radioactive stuff, and some premium items..but what was most important was that i enjoyed myself on stage and when i saw others enjoying my music.. that’s the best thing a musician can ever ask for.. well.. that’s me at least.. that’s why i love to sing and play..so that ppl can feel my music..feel what im playing.. and when someone comes to tell you that "hey, nice render out there" you’ll just be a bit snobbish and say "nah it was nothing..thanks anyway" but deep inside ur heart, u know u feel good.. its in the blood.. music is

Last week was a BLASTING experience for both me and my youth ambassadors.. we helped organize the 2006 DIGI Street Blast at Low Yat Plaza KL.. Tiring? of course… i worked from 8 in the morning till 11.30 PM.. my legs were giving way… then of course i consolidated myself by going to dinner at my favourite Kok Kok Restaurant at Jalan Pudu… To my dismay, after dinner, my car wouldn’t start.. CHLOE was giving me problems.. start start cannot start.. thank god i saw a sticker on my car that says call us if your car breaks down.. i dont even know what it is but i called… it semms my insurance plan actually covers the AAM kind of thing.. and in 20 minutes a van arrived and a funny short chinese guy came down and said.. what’s wrong.. so i said my car would not start.. he then takes a battery out of his van and tries to restart my car. still CANNOT! imagine my agony when he told me that my damm bloody Timing Belt Broke.. "learn a lesson ppl, if your timing belt breaks, everything else in your engine is a gonner" so change your timing belt every 90000 KM’s… Anyway, he had to get his friend to come tow my car back to shermaine’s house.. thats where i spent my night "hihi"… then the next day i had to get my car towed again to the workshop… and the mechanic said.. i die also dont believe 86000KM timing belt can break.. he tried on a battery and my car was as good as new.. asswipe short chinese man! put me into such agony.. did not want to complaint to my insurance company as then someday my car might get towed for no reason.. now, that’s what i call and eventfull day! However, the picture up there is a picture of me and my crew with Gary Cao, Malaysia’s Chinese Hit Sensation… he’s a damm goood singer… well, i am one too but hey, at least he got fans.. "_